Tony Hawk’s Underground 2
Should be called Bam Margera’s Underground.
Tags: Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by David Hinkle on Oct 29th, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Sports (Exteme) | No | ||
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I’m serious, this installment focuses entirely around him. Now if you’re a fan of his, you’ll appreciate the Jackass brand of humor, and the inclusion of Phil (Bam’s obese father), Wee-man (short-stacked, and surprisingly good, skater), and Steve-O (stunt-man extroardinaire). Me personally, can’t stand the guy. So right off the bat, I found myself rather disappointed in the story mode. If that isn’t really something that excites you, every cutscene is skipable, but as a reviewer who adheres to a code so old it comes before the chicken and the egg, I am forced to immerse myself in every facet of this game whether I like it or not. I mean, that’s what I’m here for, to review games for you, right? I mean, it isn’t like I’m chained to this radiator here at DEN for fun, you know?
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Anyway, the story mode can be summarized in one simple word: cheesy. Supposedly, you are one day ripping it up at your local half-pipe, when suddenly a black van (see: A-Team) barrels up, and you are abducted. Upon waking you find yourself in front of two of skating’s more established members: Bam Margera and Tony Hawk. Seems they have concocted a little contest where they will each select a team of skaters, and upon traveling city to city, see who can complete specific goals that mostly involve destroying things for points, having the losing team pay entirely for the trip. The story doesn’t really feel as weighted or important as the previous Underground installment. While I don’t really think skating and destruction go hand in hand, they really implemented said goals brilliantly into play.
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After a brief training section in the original Warehouse level, you’ll start off in Boston, a rather small level, charged with a few challenges and asked to choose a pro skater to accompany you. Challenges are different for you and your pro skater, and at any time you are free to switch between yourself and him. Also on each level is a guest skater and hidden ’skater.’ I use the term skater loosely however, as most of the time the hidden skater doesn’t even ride a skateboard, but rather some other thing. For example, in Boston you can quickly find Benjamin Franklin as your guest skater, and he will come packed with his own moves and specials, and ride a skateboard. Upon further inspection of Boston, you’ll find the hidden skater Jesse James, who rides a flame-spewing super-scooter/segway, unable to ever wipe-out. While this adds some nice variety, I feel it takes away from the core experience of skating.
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This is only about half of the game though, as they’ve brought back Classic Mode. While it fills me with all sorts of nostalgia to have that two-minute clock above my skater at all times, it’s rather pointless to have me work on goals and such only to be rewarded with levels from previous installments in the franchise. While being able to use the revert function on levels from Tony Hawk 1 & 2 is a cool idea, it isn’t really motivation enough to get the average fan of the series to really put the time in. If you aren’t the average fan though, you’ll love it and upon unlocking everything feel a sort of satisfaction only akin to the first time you unlocked everything in Tony Hawk 2 through hours and hours of skating.
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Speaking of skating, controlling it in game has never been better. The controls are responsive both on and off the board, allowing old-timers of the series to pick up and play right off the bat with the utmost of ease. Of course this game really is best played with a PS2 controller, but the S type controller on the Xbox really isn’t that far behind. Don’t even think about trying to play with the original Xbox controller however, as I’m sure you’ll quickly find yourself stranded up Frustration Creek without a paddle. As far as what is newly implemented control-wise this time around, well, you won’t see anything as revolutionary as the revert. The sticker-slap (a great way to do a 180 off of a wall), Natas spin (a stationary spin trick that shoots you into a random direction), and the ability to roll on demand (finally!) make worthy additions. Other additions, however, aren’t that useful.
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Upon gaining Special, you can press the white button to enter focus, which will zoom the camera into your skater more and slow time in a very Matrix-like effect. I can’t imagine why this was implemented besides for those who have never really had any experience with a Tony Hawk title before, and found myself to never use it beyond the few instances it was part of the challenge. Also, there is now another way to add points and multiply them called Freaking Out. Anytime you bail rather hard in the game, it will take your skater longer time to get back up and get on his board. During this time, a meter will show in the middle of the screen seeing how fast you can press the Y button and fill said meter. Once at a certain level, a brief animation will play of your skater trashing a board in some violent manner. What this does is put a certain amount of points in your pool at the bottom of the screen to apply to your next trick chain. While it’s a nice thought, the problem is it is rarely ever significant enough to warrant the energy it takes to mash the button.
New things were also added to the ‘Create A…’ section, such as ‘Create A Tag’ and ‘Create A Logo.’ Creating these will alow you to spray-paint them on walls across the levels as well as place them on your clothing and skateboard. Not the biggest addition, but a neat little option.
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All of these look great, as the graphics once again surprise. While it seems a lot brighter and maybe even more cartoony than the previous title, the graphics look amazing. With every level shifting through all times of day the more you play on it, everything feels a bit more life-like. The levels become increasingly expansive as you go through the game, with little to no frame rate issues as you traverse them. While the only complaint I have is that the player models really don’t look very impressive during the cutscenes, that’s more of a nitpick than anything that’ll actually deter your enjoyment of the game. Also I think the cars and other NPCs in the game don’t move as naturally as they should, almost skipping spaces at times. This is also another instance of me nitpicking, and nothing too severe.
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The sound this time around isn’t bad at all. With Dolby Digital standard, you can hear all the fine nuances such as the screams of agony after falling off a three story catwalk. Of course, THUG2 also delivers a great soundtrack. This time, you can create your own soundtrack from the game’s 53 songs. Don’t like rap? Fine, nix all the rap songs and go for the other stuff. An excellent mix that brings Frank Sinatra, Ministry, and the Doors to the table, no gamer should be left unsatisfied. Even if you are that one (freak), then you can easily turn those off and play all your songs from your own playlist on your Xbox’s hard drive.
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Once again though, Xbox owners will not be able to play this title online. With a rather boring 2-player split-screen mode, I was hard-pressed to invest more time than what was needed into that aspect of the title. Nowadays, I feel like Xbox LIVE implementation is almost something that should be standard, never omitted, and the lack-of here dealt a hard blow to the replay value department.
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So basically, what we have here is an average sequel in an excellent franchise. Adding enough new things to a cake mix that won countless baking contest awards, Neversoft has managed to create a worthy sequel here in THUG2. While there aren’t any other really good cakes out there, one must wonder if perhaps we are getting a little too bored of this cake and might be looking toward others for something new and exciting.
Man, now I want some cake.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Level design + Game engine + Tony Hawk feel + Variety |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- No online?! - Xbox Controller isn't as good as a PS2 Controller - Could've used more rewards for Classic Mode |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| It's pretty much everything about Tony Hawk you know and love at the core, covered by layers and layers of Bam Margera. | |
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Tags: Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Posted by David Hinkle on Oct 29th, 2004 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
